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VF-111 Sundowners


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During my last visit to the SunDowners last June , I took this photo , The squadron didn't know that the F-4N on Base is the actual MiG killer of Weigand and Freckleton , so , I told them and VFC-111 painted it up as OLDNICK 201 , and used it for a Chance of Command ceremony this spring.

USA2008Floridapt2592-1-1.jpg

F-4N 153019 NL-201 ( it was a "B" of course when it made the kill )

Cheers , Henk

Where was this photo taken?

Edited by evilmedic13
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  • 4 weeks later...

This is gotta be my favourite thread here. I love the Sundowners designs on the Tomcat and Phantom. I take it that the Sundowners are decommissioned? Otherwise, would be sweet to see the same designs on today's birds.

This is making me seriously hungry for AM's Sundowner decals for the F14 and F4!

B

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I take it that the Sundowners are decommissioned? Otherwise, would be sweet to see the same designs on today's birds.

Well, yes and no. There isn't a VF-111 anymore but VFC-111 is using the tail markings on their F-5N aircraft. Hasegawa rereleased their 1/32 F-5N with the markings included just recently:

has_08182_title.jpg

Edited by David Walker
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Guys:

A quick update on progress of Osprey's VF-11/111 entry in the Elite Units series. The text is about 3/4 done and I'm now working with Tom Tullis on 28 aircraft profiles. There's time to consider "new" planes for colo(u)r profiles if you have any favorites with full markings info. In the jet age, it helps to know what name(s) go on the canopy rail. I'll have at least two Tomcats.

Break-break

Recently I was "scolded" by a 1970 vintage Red Ripper who ordered a copy of my VF-11 in WW II monograph from 1993. he was shocked--SHOCKED!--to see I'd made such a huge mistake as to confuse His VF-11 with My VF-11. (He had never heard of VF-4 or 41.) I replied that his navy has a miserable record in the realm of maintaining unit designations, and he had to agree.....

Barrett sends

Edited by Barrett
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Barrett,

Just checked on board, I've gotten a ton of reference material here for a 24x30 acrylic painting i'm doing of Garry Weigand and Bill Freckleton's MiG-17 kill that was commissioned by the current skipper of VFC-111 (an old squadron mate of mine). Do you need a cover for your Osprey book (yeah, right) or is Iain Wyllie or Mark Postlethwaite on tap? You can see the pencil drawing for it on my site www.fox3art.com

For you Sundowner nuts, there is a painting of the colorful VFC-111 F-5N CAG bird fighting two Super Hornets on my site as well. Enjoy.

Edited by MaGooF15
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  • 3 weeks later...
Barrett,

Just checked on board, I've gotten a ton of reference material here for a 24x30 acrylic painting i'm doing of Garry Weigand and Bill Freckleton's MiG-17 kill that was commissioned by the current skipper of VFC-111 (an old squadron mate of mine). Do you need a cover for your Osprey book (yeah, right) or is Iain Wyllie or Mark Postlethwaite on tap? You can see the pencil drawing for it on my site www.fox3art.com

For you Sundowner nuts, there is a painting of the colorful VFC-111 F-5N CAG bird fighting two Super Hornets on my site as well. Enjoy.

Thanks for your kind offer! As yet there's been no discussion of the cover artiste but Tom Tullis is starting on the a/c profiles. I'm getting more replies from the F-8 to '14 era, and while post-Vietnam text is necessarily limited by word count, there definitely will be photos and profiles of 'saders, Phantoms and Toms.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The Osprey book is limited to 35,000 words of text, and so far WW II has about 15k so you'll understand that the ensuing 50 years involve cramming 12 pounds into an 8-pound bag! The Tomcat era is necessarily "once over lightly" but I intend to include one or two F-5 pix plus a colo(u)r profile for variety. Fuji and Henk are significant allies in that campaign!

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Barrett,

Here is the finished 24x30 painting I did of LT Garry Weigand and LTJg Freckleton's MiG-17 kill. The original is now hanging in the Sundowner Key West ready room and Garry has print #1, Farkle #2. Phone interviews with Garry helped me to "get it right", and e-mail correspondence with Farkle provided invaluable info as well (note the chaff door open above left engine). I was happy to find that they're both very pleased with it as an accurate reconstruction of the events of that April day in 1972.

5210_240093l.jpg

I have also done a Sundowner F-5N as a commission for the unit, it hangs in their Key West ready room as well:

5210_193268l.jpg

Prints of both works are available on my site www.fox3art.com if anyone is interested.

If you felt there was any way I could contribute to your Osprey book with the above works, I'd be more than happy to do so, though as I've said before, I realize they have some pretty heavy hitters on board for artists.

Cheers, MaGoo

P.S. Shameless I know but your "Warriors" is one of my favorite books

Edited by MaGooF15
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"3"

Guys:

1963 Sundowners CO Al Wellons died in October:

https://www.usna.com/SSLPage.aspx?RSS=alumn...r=&pid=6161

I'm uncertain as to the length of his CO tenure; apparently it was a brief period in 1963, succeeded by Charles E Ray.

Also, it appears that Doyle Lynn was exec for a long time: during Ray and Haye's tours. Evidently he was not intended to command 111, as he had orders out of the squadron when Haye was killed. Lynn volunteered to remain and of course was killed three weeks later.

Barrett

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Sundowner Fans: Be advised that I just confirmed the death of Vern Graham, who died in California in January 2006. He was the squadron's first ace, being credited with 5 Zeros near the Russel Islands on 12 June 43. If there was previous news of his passing, I was unaware of it.

Break-break

I'm looking for complete markings info on any 111 Tomcat from the last cruise. I don't necessarily need a photo for publication (though it'd be appropriate) but I want to pass info to the Osprey artist who's doing the colo(u)r profiles.

Henk provided the following photo link which shows NL 201 taxiing in 1995.

http://www.mamboccv.com/F14A_NL201_VF111_940721.jpg

Anybody know the BuNo and/or the RIO's name on the rear canopy?

Thanx to all.

Barrett

Edited by Barrett
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  • 1 month later...

Decal listing for VF-11 / 111 - VFC-111 SunDowners in 1/48

F4F Wildcat - None

F6F Hellcat - SuperScale 481034

F8F Bearcat - None

F9F Panther - Victory Productions 48008

F9F Cougar - None

FJ Fury - None

F-11 Tiger - None

F-8 Crusader - SuperScale 48-775, Cutting Edge 48-211 (MiG Killer), SuperScale

F-4B / N - SuperScale 48-325 (MiG Killer),

F-14 Tomcat - Zotz 48024, SuperScale 48-1212, AeroMaster 48-522, SuperScale 48-122 (low vis), SuperScale 48-362,

F-5N - SB Decals 48004, TwoBobs 48-143, SuperScale 48-1198

This obviously is not all of them as there are many other decals companies and various kit manufacturers have included SunDowner markings in different offerings of their kits. I know of at least two other sheets I have not listed but do not have the numbers for them at the moment, I will update them as I find them. If anyone has any more, please let me know. Also, Fightertown is supposedly coming out with a sheet of VF-111 tomcats in schemes which have not been down before. I am looking forward to that as Miss Molly and other schemes have been done to death.

PS - I don't mean to leave out the 1/72 guys but I am primarily a 1/48 builder. If one of you is into 1/72 and is as much a 111, please feel free to put together your own list and post it here.

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Does anyone have a good-quality shot of Garry Weigand and Bill Freckleton in 1971-72? I need a fairly hi-res image (300 dpi & 500 kb or better) for the Osprey book, and it's astonishing how hard it is to find a decent picture. Farkle only has wartime pix of himself and various reunion pix with Garry.

Many thanx.

btillman63@hotmail.com

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Well, yes and no. There isn't a VF-111 anymore but VFC-111 is using the tail markings on their F-5N aircraft. Hasegawa rereleased their 1/32 F-5N with the markings included just recently:

has_08182_title.jpg

I'm wanting to build this Tiger, however I was wondering if the cockpit differs from a F-5E model? And if not, is the Verlinden upgrade set suitable for detailing this F5N?

gr. launnie

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I'm wanting to build this Tiger, however I was wondering if the cockpit differs from a F-5E model? And if not, is the Verlinden upgrade set suitable for detailing this F5N?

gr. launnie

There are slight differences in the cockpit. I have some images of the Swiss E/Navy N cockpits from VFC-111. I will try to locate them and post them.

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  • 3 months later...

Based on the photo name (and I have the same pic saved with the same name on my hard drive) I'm betting its Bu No is 160920.

::edit:: Yup, it's 160920, found my copy of an email with Henk discussing this plane.

Edited by David Hingtgen
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Based on the photo name (and I have the same pic saved with the same name on my hard drive) I'm betting its Bu No is 160920.

::edit:: Yup, it's 160920, found my copy of an email with Henk discussing this plane.

Yep , it's the 160920 , VF-111 started their last cruise in june 1994 with the 161622t as the NL-200 , this Tomcat was traded with VF-154 , the 161622t became the VF-154 NF-104 and the 160920 became the NL-200 for the last part of their cruise . ( which was the old VF-154 NF-104 )

The exchance took place around November 1994 .

HTH Henk

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  • 2 months later...

Just ran across these posts on VF-111 and found it very interesting in that like most of you I find the markings of this unit very eyecatching! I have long wanted to build up the Tamiya 1/32 F-4J in '201's' markings (I've already got the necessary mods completed to backdate it to a B model). The main point I have yet to figure out is what are the names on the canopy frame at the time of the MiG kill? I e-mailed the RIO LTjg Freckleton and he was unable to recall the names other than suggesting that they would have been names of higher ranking officers...a/c '201' would not have been assigned to junior officers. If anybody can help I greatly appreciate it.

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